OBJECTIVE: Anesthetic preconditioning may contribute to the cardioprotective effects of sevoflurane in patients having coronary artery bypass surgery. We investigated whether 2 different sevoflurane administration protocols can induce preconditioning in patients having coronary artery bypass. METHODS: Thirty patients were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups. All patients received a total intravenous anesthesia with sufentanil (0.3 microg(-1) x kg x h(-1)) and propofol as target controlled infusion (2.5 microg/mL). The control group had no further intervention; 10 minutes prior to establishing the extracorporeal circulation, patients of the sevoflurane-I group received 1 minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane for 5 minutes. Patients of the sevoflurane-II group received (2 times) 5 minutes of sevoflurane, interspersed by 5-minute washout 10 minutes prior to extracorporeal circulation. Troponin I was measured as marker of cardiac cellular damage. RESULTS: Peak levels of troponin I release were observed at 4 hours after cardiopulmonary bypass and were not affected by 1 cycle of sevoflurane administration (controls: 14 +/- 3 ng/mL vs sevoflurane-I group, 14 +/- 3 ng/mL). Two periods of sevoflurane preconditioning significantly reduced cellular damage compared with controls (peak troponin I level sevoflurane-II group, 7 +/- 2 ng/mL). CONCLUSION: These data show that sevoflurane-induced preconditioning is reproducible in patients having coronary artery bypass but depends on the preconditioning protocol used.